VESPA

Update..... I was contacted by email by the owner with apologies as he was away on leave hence the delay replying. A refund was issued that day in full. So thanks for that. However the UPS saga was interesting as they had altered the dates in their tracking records. I even had a phone call from them to collect the loco on the day I returned it by Royal Mail. One thing UPS cannot alter are sent emails and the useless customer care via Facebook. All of which I am keeping for the time being until I decide whether to take the issue higher as a formal complaint. Avoid UPS if you can along with Hermes now Evri. They are so bad they had to change their name. My new name for UPS is Useless Parcel Service.

The saga went on and on as the day progressed with contact only through Facebook. What is that all about? UPS are only contactable via Facebook and Twitter until you delve a bit deeper and find a phone number. That person, contacted by phone, could hardly speak English and promised a call back within an hour. Never happened along with another 4 promises of call back throughout the day (8 hours in total trying to sort things out) via Facebook. Today I tried to contact Locomotion Models as they are now only taking calls Tues, Wed and Thurs between 10-4. One ring and then 2 1/2 mins of music to get an answerphone (2 messages left). I also sent them 2 completed contact forms from their website. In the end I have sent the loco back via Royal Mail special delivery for £8.95. A totally horrid purchase experience and by far the worst of any mail order purchase ever. I was going to have MALLARD in LNER blue as in the NRM and the Dynomometer car for Christmas. Once again another Christmas year of railway presents not to be seen at Christmas. I have asked for a refund on Mallard and await a repaired Dyno car from Rapido trains. The latter were all recalled due to overheating of the lighting circuit. From now on no more train related items for Christmas presents. A very stressful few days which was unecessary.

I have received a model of Mallard with a faulty cabside and am trying to send it back. LM have raised a returns lable but UPS claim to have delivered it. I am at a point of sending it back by Royal Mail and cancelling the order after spending nearly 5 hours trying to get UPS to sort the lable out. They came to collect without bringing a lable and then disappeared. Has anyone else had anything delivered by UPS and had problems?

Bachmann have a spares dept who maybe able to help.

Slightly off topic, but I once bought a LTD Edition Vauxhall new. What made it ltd., was lousy paintwork and numerous faults that were persistant until I got shut. The other thing about Ltd editions is, if a dealer has commissioned it the 2-3 years later it goes to mass production. Rails and Hattons are masters of that game and masters of upping prices. Save now, pay later! Or pay through the nose and save later. You take your choice.

I think Limited Edition is purely a sales ploy. Limited to 2500 units is about the full production run. I have a few specials worth about the same as normal versions. One I bought Ltd from Beatties with a free teddy bear, 501 Squadron. It sits in a cabinet never run. Probably worth about £50 if I am lucky. I am pondering an "exclusive" at present at £190. That may be a better buy as new locos are only available with a mortgage.

I do larger spray items outside but would love to have a go at spray brushing inside. That will be a no no after a disaster with indoor spraying a few years back. My wife had gone to work and I decided a few car parts needed spraying so cover all the kitchen areas in paper and small single bed sheets as it was cold and wet outside. I then set about my spraying from aerosol cans, confident that I had everything covered. WRONG! the spray mist finds it's way everywhere. All the joints in the paper let some spray through in small quantities and I spent 2 hours cleaning it all off. Black spray and white cupboards don't go well together. I would recommend a booth with extractor and work in a shed or garage. Now things like coach roofs and body work are done outside in summer with aerosols. Fine workis brushed. I am going to attempt to weather a van with rusty parts and dirt with the dry brush method. That is a project on hold at present. I have done dry brush weathering on building kits that looks fine but they can easily be sorted out if things go a bit haywire, whereas spending 3 hours or so with transfers and then messing up, rather puts me off a bit. I do have a cheap airbrush that was a freebie from a mag subscription but I have not used it yet.

"Spaceships", was a nickname for them, due to the cab size. I have also been on the footplate many times mainly out of steam at the NRM.

DarkRedCape, Hornby used to run a monthly competition on here with a decent prize. One month I entered and won "Queen Maud". I didn't know I had won until the postman delivered it and my wife wondered what I had been ordering. It has a funny significance away from Norway or locos as my grandmother was called Maud (b 1897) and my dear mum had it as her middle name. For me it is a very good model with little to fault it by way of detail except the driver's fingerprints are not on the regulator as in the new version laughing

Not long back a chap on here wanted a "Queen Maud" to take home to Norway. What a shame they are now sensible (Only just) prices. I won a "Queen Maud" of the last version on here a few years back.

I cannot spare my 14.1mm wheels with metal rims but do have a few metal 12mm wheels that I would send an axle set to you. I do have some Dapol all plastic wheels in 14.1mm that I can also send you an axle set. The big problem here is that this website does not allow personal contact. If there is any way around this will someone let us know. Alternatively contact Hornby Customer services and see if the would be kind enough to confirm the wheelset size and if they would supply uou with a seat FOC as a goodwil gesture.

There is no way I am paying these ridiculous prices being asked at present for new stock. Even 2nd had stock at certain retailers is becoming a joke pricewise. Some descriptions at one retailer bear no resemblance to the product or condition. It is the end of railway modelling for the masses. What annoys me is the sale of items previously say £189 reduced to a BARGAIN £85. What went on there with that. Losses because of the wrong model being considered. No need to worry, the mugs will pay the next price increases. New model arrives or new number and name and woooooooof on goes another £50. 12 months later it packs up. No spares available anywhere so now we own a plastic static model. Price increases on this scale will kill Hornby and Bachmann and quite a few newer entries to the land of the money tree.

I was a planner in a cardboard papermill and suggest you look at Hobbycraft or a photo suppliers as they carry stocks of suitable card in a few thicknesses. If you do Superquick or Metcalfe then that will give you a guide as to your needs. Don't forget that small offcuts can be used as strengtheners. By the way we made for Kelloggs, Bryant and May, Birds Eye and some very strong stuff for breweries to pack 6 packs in. In fact if you had anything packed in cardboard it's likely we made it, until the EU brought in rules that made only EU countries were given the edge. We recycled waste paper with fresh tree pulp whereas they only chopped trees down for all card.

64 Dorchesters/ Barnstaples for 1 Scotsman? (£5.15s or £5.75p in "pound in your pocket will not be affected")

I think Hornby are now looking at a smaller customer base of 500 worldwide. At the current price surge I will pop a few quid away for a new Bentley which will eventually be cheaper compared to 00 Hornby models. Perhaps the TT venture is being funded by 00 mugs. Oh Dear! model railways is a dying hobby with these daft prices. The Railroad Scotsman is now over £100. Saving my pocket money as a 12 YO it would take 2 years to get one and by then bike racing and girls will use up that money as the intrest wains.

I have 8 variations (poss 9) Six in a cabinet with one of the double tender (blue) ones just the loco. It revolves around tenders, chimneys A1 to A3 banjo dome from round, liveries and the US tour versions (2, 3 4) I have lost count but Hornby should give the NRM a donation for the loco after all the money they have made out of it. My first sighting was in LNER green at Northwich, Cheshire, on an excursion.

I waited for the Goebbels bulletin at 13.00 to see the advertised article on Flying Scotsman., which never transpired on Goebbels channel one. I have several versions of Flying Scotsman from A1 to A3 to NRM restoration. I prefer the smoke deflectors and BR green, but that is a personal choice. I spent many happy hours on the footplate, at Carnforth, back in the 70's. I will NOT be purchasing any of the newer versions at that ridiculous price. I can get my Jaguar XE serviced for that by the dealer.

What about rebushing with top hat bushes in the bogie being careful not to drill too far in.

Some tops on the Brit tenders are very awkward to get off and others a doddle. It must be factory differences, Margate (early ones) then 2x China versions. Also the moulings will make quite a few at a time.

The Gresley coaches originally had wooden centres from what I can seen in old colour photos. I painted mine to suit. If they were steel all through then they were painted brown.

All mine have 2 hole because that was what I had stashed away. I think plain disc would be nearer the mark but the holes are so small it would be like looking for a 4mm scale ant to see them. They are not like the holed wagon wheels. After just paying out £18 for 10 more axles of pure Hornby gold wheels, I found another stash of 8 which would have completed my Gresley coach rewheel project.

Have a look at these links............ https://www.metcalfemodels.com/ The latter is all Metcalfe kits and very impressive. The former is a how to do the kits and get the best rom them, by Metcalfe themselves.

It looks to be a great model but at £200+ my wallet stays shut, sadly.

I have done nearly all the Superquick kits in the past and they are very good. I have several Metcalfe factory kits to build at the moment but no place to put them. There are 3 large plastic storage boxes in my garage full of kits I bought from Hattons when Keith Hatton was in charge. They were mainly Heljan, one of which took nearly 2 weeks to complete as it is a massive Mansion/town hall/ hospital (£5 easily £50+ now). That was packed with enough windows and doors to have the packers just load full sprues of them, leaving quite a few spares for scratch building. I am pondering scratch building from the brick sheets that Metcalf make. Adding items such as plant growth etc makes them even better. Have a look at the Metcalf site and see what can be achieved with a harbour, street scene etc. Brilliant and reasonably priced.

I have left the Gresley teaks to one side to concentrate on my breakdown train. There are a few things I am considering to do with them, such as new roof vents and coupling change. The revived project, consists of a Bachmann Ransomes Rapier steam crane, a Bachmann plate wagon for extras, a Hornby red engineers van, a Dapol banana van sprayed red and lettered as a tool van with suitable numbers and a Dapol ex LMS Brake coach sprayed red and lettered and numbered. Some windows are sprayed over to look as if plated and some small ones white, where light and privacy is required. I need to add a 16T coal wagon for coal in the steam and am pondering adding a water tanker to supply the crane. That may be red or black with modifications. I started this project 2 years ago and lost interest. I was totally lost with the numbering so decided they were having ficticious numbers. All tranfers were from Cambridge Custom Transfers and are extremely fine and delicate. It took a bit of practice to get them together, as numbers are 3 small sets of 3 eg ADE 565 681 as ADE565681. Getting them level as a row was difficult and then lining the start of another transfer above or below evenly spaced with a 3rd row. Tool Van DE515313 Em I am going to try rusting up several parts of the wagons and coach. Although there is a reasonable amount of photo reference, no two things are the same in many instances or not available RTR as breakdown trains, so it's a case of do what you want until you are happy with what the outcome is.